BRIAN KENNEDY has warned Rangers administrators they could kill the club if they back Bill Miller’s bid for control.

BRIAN KENNEDY has warned Rangers administrators they could kill the club if they back Bill Miller’s bid for control.

Kennedy teamed up with Paul Murray’s Blue Knights yesterday to table a joint rescue package worth £13million for the crisis club – just as Record Sport exclusively revealed they would.

But while the Murray-Kennedy coalition was busy trumping them to the tune of £6m, the men from Duff and Phelps were last night still weighing up the merits of both deals.

We can reveal the new Blue Knights offer consists of a £5m lump sum and also the removal of £8m, owed to debenture holders, from the club’s £55m debt mountain.

But Miller’s original £11.2m bid still stands – and he too plans to remove the debenture debt. All of which means the club’s creditors would stand to claw back more than double the amount of cash from Miller’s regime than they would if Kennedy and the Blue Knights were successful.

But Kennedy believes the American offer could crash and burn when Miller crunches the numbers during a period of due diligence.

And last night he was urging administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse to consider more than the bottom line.

Speaking exclusively to Record Sport, the Sale Sharks owner said: “This is a critical moment for Rangers. A sequence of events is about to unfold which could be enormously damaging to the club.

"I’m not trying to bully or scare anybody – I’m just pleading for the people involved to think this through properly.

“This is not as simple as £11m versus £5m. If I am right and the American bid does not hold up then it could become zero versus £5m.

“And by then the club’s position will have become even more perilous and the situation could well be completely irretrievable.

“The fans have been through so much pain in the last 12 months they are terrified of the ramifications should the club end up in the wrong hands.

“They are not xenophobes but they want people they know to take charge of saving their club. They are also vehemently against the prospect of losing 140 years of history.

“For those reasons I do not believe they will back Mr Miller’s bid and, without their full support, his proposals cannot work.

“I know the guys from Duff and Phelps are decent men trying to do their best for the club and its creditors.

“But I implore them to think this through and fully consider the sequence of events I have just outlined. There is a danger the club could die and the creditors could be left with not £11m, not £5m, but nothing.”

Kennedy spent last night ramming home this message during a series of phone calls to Clark and Whitehouse. And he believes the administrators are aware of the dangers of making a wrong call at this critical moment in the club’s battle for survival.

He added: “I have told them they have to consider which one of these two bids truly stacks up – and which one could prove to be an unmitigated disaster for the club.

“Miller plans to have a newco, Rangers 2012, playing in the SPL next season while the oldco – the Rangers which means so much to so many – is sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust and cobwebs, perhaps never to be seen again.

“It was because of the possibility of this very scenario that I got involved in the bidding in the first place.

“Together with Paul Murray and the Blue Knights we are trying to do everything in our power to protect the club and its emotional heritage.

“Yes, if Craig Whyte doesn’t co-operate in our attempts to keep Rangers alive then we might have to go down a route like the one Miller is proposing. But only as a last resort.

“The Rangers fans will accept that. They will NOT accept it as a first resort – which is why they’ll resist the American bid with all their might.

“If Miller is given preferred bidder status he will soon realise his strategy is not wanted. The emotional resistance he will encounter from the supporters will overwhelm him.

“Then there is the matter of no European football for three years which is a financial hammer blow.

“With no Europe and no support from the fans his plans will look horrendous. I’m sure he’ll soon work this out and then run for the hills. But at that point the club could be three or four weeks further on and way beyond the point of saving.

“If the Americans delay this process and then disappear, the existence of Rangers will have been seriously jeopardised. That is what the administrators must keep in mind.”

In a statement last night, Whitehouse confirmed two bids have been tabled – and one of them is worth significantly more cash to the club’s creditors.

He said: “Neither bid involves liquidation. There are significant differences between the two offers in terms of a prospective return to creditors and approach to future funding. These have to be evaluated.”

Miller’s bid is conditional on “securing greater comfort and clarity from the football authorities in relation to sanctions against Rangers”.

The Murray-Kennedy offer is dependant upon the successful delivery of a CVA coupled with Whyte’s majority shareholding.

As we revealed yesterday, finance firm Ticketus has been removed from the Blue Knights’ bid and they will join the queue of creditors.